Billionaire Mark Cuban paid a $275 million federal income tax bill Monday, with the former Internet pioneer and Mavericks co-owner saying on social media site X Sunday afternoon that he scheduled the funds to be wired to the Treasury Department.
“I’m not saying there isn’t a ton of government waste. There is,” Cuban wrote in an email to Sportico. “But every time I think about what this country has done for me, I’m happy to be in a position to give something back.”
Cuban is worth $5.4 billion, according to an estimate by Forbes. He sold his majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks at the end of 2023, according to an NBA statement that said the sale was expected to close by Dec. 30. It’s likely the sale of his stake to gambling billionaire Miriam Adelson is the source of much of the taxes owed.
The sale of the Mavericks would generate long-term capital gains tax for Cuban, who bought the team in 2000 for $285 million. The Adelson transaction valued the franchise at $3.5 billion, with the buyers purchasing a little more than half the franchise and Cuban retaining about a quarter of the team.
For the wealthiest taxpayers like Cuban, the federal capital gains rate is 20% for investments held for more than one year, but the federal tax code is notoriously complex, and the entrepreneur likely had a number of deductions as well as federal adjustments like the Alternative Minimum Tax go into calculating the final figure. How complicated are taxes? On Sunday, Cuban tweeted his tax bill was $288 million. On Monday, he updated the figure on X, saying he heard from his accountant KPMG the figure came in lower than originally estimated, at $275.9 million.
“I pay what I owe. This country has done so much for me, I’m proud to pay my taxes every year,” Cuban wrote Sunday.
Widely known as an NBA owner and star of the TV show Shark Tank, Cuban made his fortune by cofounding Broadcast.com to stream sports game audio during the early days of the Internet. He sold the business at the height of the dotcom craze to Yahoo, using a sophisticated options strategy to preserve his wealth when shares of the acquirer plunged in the sector’s 2000 bust.
“I’ve said it for years. After military service, paying your taxes is the most patriotic thing we can do,” Cuban tweeted Monday.
With assistance from Kurt Badenhausen
(This story has been updated after Cuban corrected his tax bill and also to add comment from him.)
